SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean Agricultural Ministry confirmed Saturday that a new highly virulent bird flu case has broken out in central South Korea despite quarantine efforts taken in the country.

    "Breeding chickens in a poultry farm in Cheonan turned out to be infected with a highly virulent strain of avian influenza," said a statement of the ministry.

    "The farm is a concentrated breeding area where quarantine efforts have been made on an elevated scale after avian influenza was found there in Jan. 2004," it said.

    Cheonan is located almost midway between Seoul and Iksan, 230 km south of Seoul, where the South Korean government confirmed on Nov. 25 last year the first bird flu outbreak since 2004.

    According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean government will slaughter all poultries, including 270,000 chickens and other poultries, within the 500 meter radius of the farm where the virus was found. The government also plans to set a restrict area within the 10 km around the farm.

    In 2003 and 2004, South Korea destroyed 5.3 million poultry to prevent the spread of the disease.